International Trade Highlights: Last year, the U.S. exported 241,800 MT of turkey meat which was 33.8 percent less volume and 23.2 percent less in value than 2014. Mexico remained the largest market for U.S. turkey exports, importing 135,620 MT of turkey but decreased imports by 36.4 percent.

Hong Kong and Panama remained in second and third places respectively. Hong Kong was the only major trading partner that increased turkey imports from the U.S. The U.S. imported 20,091 MT of frozen turkey meat in 2015, increasing 65.7 percent over the year before.

Canada, Chile, and Israel remained the top three exporters to the U.S. in 2015 with imports increasing 38.3 percent, 101.0 percent and 325.8 percent respectively.

Similar to the rest of the poultry industry, Avian Influenza (AI) had rippling effects throughout turkey business. 2015’s export low was 17,680 MT in May which was 35.3 percent lower than the May the previous year and the lowest since 2010. The year’s largest month by volume was March, a month before the AI outbreak. During that time the U.S. exported 24,580 MT or 11.2 percent lower than the same month the year before.

As shown in the graph, last year’s U.S. cold storage continued the trend of lower storage that started in 2014. February was the lowest month for cold storage 86,300 MT, which was 1.0 percent higher than the same month in 2014 but 14.0 percent lower than 2013.

The year peaked at 224,090 MT in June which was 1.0 percent higher than the year before but 15.0 percent lower than 2013. The effects of AI are clearly seen in the reduced number of exports, with that same month reporting the lowest numbers in years, as previously mentioned.

Consequently, there is a deviance in the normal export-price and domestic-price behavior where the prices move negatively of each other. While domestic prices were firm in comparison to the year before, 10.0 percent on average, export prices were an average 16.9 percent higher than the prior year.